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Tipperary Casino – Changes To Irish Gaming Laws Imminent

Fianna Fáil Cabinet ministers are considering a report on changes to Irish gaming laws. This report has being fast tracked ahead of next Tuesday’s austerity budget vote and will be signed off on, in the last meeting before the Dáil ends for the Christmas holidays.

The controversial report on the licensing of super-casinos has been fast-tracked for circulation to all government ministers and their departments in the last number of days.

A spokesman for the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said that ministers will sign off on the report at the final cabinet meeting, before the Dáil shuts for the Christmas recess.

The Tipperary Venue Project, a proposed €460 million casino, near the village of Two-Mile-Borris in Tipperary, being developed by Richard Quirke, a former garda who currently runs Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium on O’Connell Street in Dublin, is planned to include a 500-room hotel and a new all weather racecourse facility.

To further proceed, this project requires major reform to the present Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1956. Major changes to the present Irish gaming laws are now likely to advance the Tipperary Venue project, which has already received local planning permission.

The proposed project cannot proceed further due to legal constraints in the present Irish gambling laws and also an appeal by An Taisce against the projects planning approval, granted by North Tipperary County Council.